Whatever side of the gun control debate you’re on, everyone can agree: there’s something different this time. Whether we’ve reached a tipping point and we are collectively tired of the unnecessary violence or the crime was so shocking that it can not be rationalized, it’s clear that the usual bag of NRA tactics is not working.

Nothing has made this more clear than the outright rebellion from reliable right-wing sources. The New York Post labeled NRA Chief Executive Wayne LaPierre a “Gun Nut.” Fox News has been uncharacteristically subdued and now, even Newsmax, a website known only for being an outlet for right-wing propaganda has turned its back on the NRA in a bit of rarely seen journalistic integrity:

Israel’s policy on issuing guns is restrictive, and armed guards at its schools are meant to stop terrorists, not crazed or disgruntled gunmen, experts said Monday, rejecting claims by America’s top gun lobby that Israel serves as proof for its philosophy that the U.S. needs more weapons, not fewer.

Far from the image of a heavily armed population where ordinary people have their own arsenals to repel attackers, Israel allows its people to acquire firearms only if they can prove their professions or places of residence put them in danger. The country relies on its security services, not armed citizens, to prevent terror attacks.

This is not a right-wing knee jerk defense of Israel in any sense. It is simply a statement of reality that stands in stark contrast to the NRA’s Wild, Wild west fantasy. Newsmax goes on:

“Israel had a whole lot of school shootings until they did one thing: They said, ‘We’re going to stop it,’ and they put armed security in every school and they have not had a problem since then,” LaPierre said on the NBC News show “Meet the Press.”

Israel never had “a whole lot of school shootings.” Authorities could only recall two in the past four decades.

…

Israel didn’t mandate armed guards at the entrances to all schools until 1995, the Education Ministry said — more than two decades after the Maalot attack and two years after a Palestinian militant wounded five pupils and their principal in a knifing at a Jerusalem school.

…

Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor spelled it out.

“We’re fighting terrorism, which comes under very specific geopolitical and military circumstances. This is not something that compares with the situation in the U.S,” Palmor said.

The only terror we’re fighting on American soil is the one instilled by groups like the NRA itself. Newsmax goes on to fully describe how superior Israel’s gun policies are in relation to America’s in the sense that the Israelis take the time to know who is buying a gun, why and to check whether they are a risk to public safety. All of this would be considered “tyranny” but gun “rights” advocates. It’s OK for the rest of the country to live in fear of the next gun massacre as long as a well-funded minority tells us they have the right to buy as many guns as they want.

This particular episode of America’s addiction to guns has not yet played itself out and the NRA may yet prevail with its bag of distractions and nonsense. This time, though, it will not be with quite the same amount of automatic support from the usual suspects. Hopefully that means the tide is finally turning and America can reverse the “shoot first, ask never” mentality that has overtaken us.